Independent Thinking » Business Development

Out of Practice

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:04:29 +0000

Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester suggested that his team’s historic late-season collapse had nothing to do with the fact that he and his teammates were drinking on the job. His rationale: they were doing the same thing in April and May–and the team was winning.

Sure. And if I substituted laziness for running laps, the fact that I’d be sucking air after a couple of months would be coincidental too.

You have to practice. And practice isn’t just for athletes.

If you get out of the practice of blogging, you stop looking for inspiration.
If you get out of the practice of networking, your pipeline dries up.
If you get out of the practice of business development, it’s harder to make that first call.
If you get out of the practice of budgeting, it’s easy to go into debt.
If you get out of the practice of planning, it’s easy to miss market signals.

If you get out of the practice of doing, what falls down in your business?

Photo by Newtown grafitti (Flickr).

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How Not to Be Dumb, Slow, and Expensive

Daria Steigman — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:06:55 +0000

When a colleague asked me whether I wanted to review David Siteman Garland‘s new book I did what every Web-savvy marketer would do: I went to Amazon to read the reviews. I got no further than the author’s own video introduction.

In other words, he found a smart, fast, and cheap way to hook me in.

Garland lays out the premise of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper on page 1:

When you break down all the fluff, there are two ways to promote and market your business: dumber, slower, and expensive–or smarter, faster, and cheaper.

The other point Garland makes is that savvy entrepreneurs and smart business owners can compete against big brands. (Sometimes we even have an edge.):

Lean companies are at a distinct advantage in the new world of business building, marketing, and promoting, because they aren’t required to ask a board of 739 people before posting something online… David has been given a slingshot and can outmaneuver Goliath.

Faster, Smarter, Cheaper is filled with marketing advice about being human, building trust, growing your community, and leveraging social platforms to expand your reach and demonstrate your uber-smarts. While the book seems aimed at newbies, there’s plenty of advice for seasoned business owners and marketers alike.

In fact, the book saved me big time the other day. I was reading Garland’s chapter on “Creating a Sharable and Spreadable Website” when I came across a bulleted list of things to consider in addition to content. One of the bullets: “Is it clear to users how they can contact me? Do I tell them what the best way to reach me is? E-mail? Phone?…”

I was so focused on making sure I was getting my shiny social media icons on my new Web site that I’d forgotten to include e-mail and telephone information front and center. Fortunately, the site wasn’t yet live.

There are lots of reasons we read business books. Some are for Big Ideas. Others for inspiration. Still others are designed to help us do what we do, but a little bit better. Smarter, Faster, Cheaper is great for this.

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper in exchange for agreeing to review it–but without any restrictions on what I might say.

Photo by puuikibeach (Flickr).

Is 2011 the Year the Workforce Grows Up?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:15:38 +0000

Over at Small Business Labs, Steve King set out his top 10 business trends for 2011. At number 9: “Freelancers Realize They’re Small Business Owners.” King identifies two categories of contingent workers: those embracing freelancing and those stuck with it because of a lack of full-time job options. He writes:

Both groups will increasingly see themselves as long-term freelancers and realize to be successful they will need to view themselves as small business owners. [Emphasis mine.] This shift in thinking will improve their businesses and result in a stronger, more successful freelance community.

I agree completely with King’s premise. To succeed in business, you have to have a business mind. That falls right into my definition of Independent Thinking, which says in part that “to venture out on your own, you have to be great at your core business and savvy enough to manage everything else.”

But I think his conclusion is wrong.

It’s just not that easy to be a business owner, much less an entrepreneur. You have to understand that it is about more than just picking up projects or handing out business cards at a networking event. It’s about managing clients, marketing, branding, budgeting, forecasting, innovating, learning, business development–and getting the paying work done.

And you have to really want it.

I’ve seen some freelancers be very successful freelancers. Some independent contractors try to be business people and fail miserably. Some business people try business ownership and be completely lost. Looking at the landscape of the unemployed, it’s rare that I meet people who get how to pivot to small business ownership.

Are there some? Sure. But a trend? I’m not seeing signs of it.

Photo by Obliot (Flickr).

5 Reasons Businesses Use Social Media

Daria Steigman — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:17:23 +0000

So why are businesses using social media?

According to the State of Social Media for Business, the top goals for companies are branding and community. Rounding out the top five are increasing Web site traffic (hmm, I hope that’s not really an end in itself), identifying and addressing consumer needs, and business development.

The report identifies eight trends in business use of social media–from who is using it to how effective companies think their efforts have been.

Social Media Outposts

The report also looks at where companies are focusing their attention. Not surprisingly, Facebook and Twitter lead the list. But are their customers, clients, and prospects hanging out there? And do most businesses even know the answer?

The evidence suggests they don’t.

Clued In or Clueless?

Two things really stood out for me:

only 14.7 percent of companies are measuring their social media efforts; and (perhaps not coincidentally)
only 14.2 percent of companies say their strategies are very effective.

What makes the statistics particularly interesting is that survey respondents self-selected. As a result, the numbers reflect companies that are more knowledgeable about and more inclined to use social media. That so few of these have adopted measurable strategies means there’s still a long way to go to make businesses truly social.

What’s Your Biggest Marketing Challenge?

Daria Steigman — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:14:07 +0000

I was just looking over a short report on business-to-business marketing put out by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research. According to What Works in B2B Marketing 2010, the top three challenges facing marketers are lead generation, increasing product/service awareness, and reaching decision makers.

While the first one was no surprise (lead generation is consistently one of my top challenges too), I was a bit surprised to see the other two on the list. Maybe that’s because, as a small business owner, I find that social media has made it far easier to identify and reach out to key decision makers in companies. It’s also made it easier and more cost effective for small companies to build brand awareness.

What’s your take?

Sales Genie and the Art of the List

Daria Steigman — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:54:23 +0000

I was talking with a representative from Sales Genie at a conference recently, and our conversation turned to the roots of list making.

My first prospecting list, in the days before information was online, was a labor of much labor. Having identified my target market (at the time, Washington offices of large companies in the agriculture and/or energy sectors), I spent several days at the public library meticulously writing down on index cards contact names, titles, addresses, company data, and any other information that I thought might be useful.

It turns out that Sales Genie, in its early days, used pretty much the same process. Which makes sense, of course, because why should everyone reinvent the wheel?

Has the process changed today–or is it just easier to access data? What does your list-making process entail?

Photo by rocknroll_guitar (Flickr).

5 Tips to Jumpstart Your Business in 2010

Daria Steigman — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:17:49 +0000

In this age of instant everything, planning seems to be getting a bad rap. But make no mistake: planning matters. Here are my five tips for jumpstarting your business in 2010:

Assess your financial health. Before you can set goals for the new year, it is useful to understand how your business fared in 2009. We all know our bottom line numbers, but how did you get there? What’s your ideal income stream (types of projects, mix of clients, and so forth), and did you achieve it? If not, why not?
Review your current client list. You know who they are, but do you like them? I’m lucky enough to work with clients I like–or maybe it’s because I’m unwilling to deal with the ones whose business practices don’t mesh with my own. If your clients are giving you headaches, it is worth considering whether your time might be better spent doing business development.
Develop a 2010 strategy. Once you have a picture of how your business fared last year and why, it’s time to set goals for 2010. Even if everything is going well, “keep doing what I’m doing” isn’t a good goal because it neither defines what you’re doing or why it’s working. My top goals are around business development, client services, and community. What are yours?
Reconnect with contacts. The new year is also a great time to reconnect with friends, business acquaintances, and other people in your business card stack, LinkedIn network, and Outlook or gmail contacts list. If you’ve followed my earlier advice, then you’re already top of mind; now it’s time to follow up.
Implement your plan. This seems obvious, but it’s also the hard part. The business of running a business is hard work, but hopefully these five steps will put you on the path to 2010 success.

Do these tips resonate with you? What would you add?

Photo by hyku. (Flickr).

Please Don’t Hit On Me Just Because I’m Here

Daria Steigman — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:19:43 +0000

WHY should I join your network?

I’ve seen a number of so-called discussion questions on LinkedIn Groups lately that are are on the theme of “Open Networker — please link to me” and “I’m building out my network — please invite me to connect.” In none of these cases does the person tell me either what value they bring or what the rest of us might do to help them.

Whether you are looking for your next job or your next customer or client, please don’t be the person who hits on everyone indiscriminantly. It’s not a valued trait. Rather, understand what you bring to the table and why I might want to have a conversation with you. If you’re interesting to me, the connection will follow.

5 Reasons Losing Work Can Work Out for You

Daria Steigman — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:28:53 +0000

I once gave a talk to a group of independent consultants about how losing a big client can be a good thing. I’ve been thinking about the topic a lot lately as I see more and more people lose jobs or clients, or feel the pinch of shrinking marcomm budgets. As many of us cope with one form of loss or another, it’s a good time to revisit how solopreneurs and small business owners can turn this around and create opportunities for ourselves.

So here areÂ my top five reasons why losing work can work out for you:

You have to figure out what went wrong. Unless you screwed up, it likely has nothing to do with you. And that’s helpful to understand (and, if you screwed up, it’s important to recognize that and resolve not to make the same mistakes again). I once lost a great client when her company was bought out in a $9.8 billion acquisition deal; another client, when his departmental budget was cut.
It forces you to evaluate your existing client relationships. Are you coasting comfortably along or have you asked your clients for feedback? When things are going well, it is easy to become complacent. Losing work ends that illusion, and reminds you that it might be wise to make sure your perception of the work relationship meshes with theirs.
It frees up your time. Okay, stick with me here. I know you don’t want this free time, but what can you do now for your business that you didn’t have time to do before? I focused some time on better understanding social media, and I started this blog, during a slow period last summer.
It brings new urgency to business development. If you’re like many solopreneurs and small business owners, your new business efforts are inversely proportional to the time spent on existing client work. There’s nothing like a revenue dip to focus your attention on the business side of your business.
You get to test new business ideas. This goes hand-in-hand with #4. Every change in my business strategy has come after the loss of a big client. While that’s probably not a big surprise, here’s what might be: I was relieved to be free to try something new. As a result, I’ve been able over the years to expand my business from public affairs to include strategy and marketing communications offerings.

There’s one more reason why I’m big on loss as opportunity: I started my business after I lost a full-time job.

So what have I left out? How did losing a client or a job help you?

Before You Quit Your Day Job…

Daria Steigman — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:09:10 +0000

Thinking of going independent or starting a business? Before you quit your day job, here are a few “top of mind” things to consider:

your risk tolerance
your comfort level with doing business development
your level of discipline
your value proposition (why clients should hire you instead of all the other solo practitioners in the marketplace)

As a would-be entrepreneur, you should also develop a business plan right away–before taking any other steps. Developing a business plan will force you to focus on your goals and what is aspirational, what is achievable in the shorter term, and what resources it will take to succeed.