Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell

Is it Important, or is it Urgent?

Many times a business owner doesn’t have time to do important things that really needs to be done with their business. Why?

They are busy taking care of the urgent.

If you let the mowing and weed eating go too long in the springtime it soon becomes urgent.

If you put off paying estimated taxes all of 2006, long about April 14th 2007, it becomes very urgent.

When your doctor says, “Your blood pressure is so high you are in danger of a heart attack. Change your lifestyle to include a healthy diet and regular daily exercise.” Taking care of your health has just become urgent.
Looking for ways to promote and market your small business should be a constant ongoing thing. It is important but not urgent.

We business owners have a tendency to work in the business and not on it. We are always doing things that are urgent and sometimes put off important things.

If you neglect or procrastinate marketing & promoting your business, by the time it becomes urgent it is such a problem the business owner becomes frustrated, desperate, and sometimes wants advertising to “create a quick fix.

You can make a fortune in a business if win the hearts and minds of your potential customers then be patient and wait until their time of need arises. Convince them to like you and trust you by talking to them about their needs wants and dreams. Persuade them gently that you are the person to come to when they need your service or product. Then they will come do business with you when they are ready. Advertise consistently. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. Win their hearts first their money will follow.

If business is slow in January and February, don’t wait until January 1st to advertise. When you try to whip the public into a frenzy by urgent messages to “BUY NOW” they may ignore you.

I encourage you to develop the discipline to do the IMPORTANT THINGS before they become URGENT. This discipline will help you prevent future situations of a constant rush do things ASAP.

If you don’t have much money to advertise with, then you need to be extremely frugal with what you do have.

Read a related article A Way to Market if You Have No Money

American Small Business articles by Clay

How to make the change from employee to business owner.

A business owner looks at things differently than an employee.

I received this letter from Kim this week.
I read your article on Am. Small Biz and I am getting up the courage to leave my job. It is hard when you make the top of your salary range. How do people walk away?

I have been wanting to start my own business for about 11 years.

I am touched by your story and believe one can be successful if they truly do what they love.

Kim

Yes, love what you do! But also consider this:

The person that decides to start and run their own business has a different way of looking at things than the person who decides to be an employee. There is nothing wrong with being a man or a woman. Each one is OK to be. There is however, no reason either, to stay one, if you really want to be the other.
I was flipping through channels tying to find something interesting to watch when I came upon this show about the “thinking and reasoning” of people who received a sex change operation. I wondered why on earth would some one want to do that. I watched.

I observed and discovered from that program that night that people have sex change operations because:

1. They believe strongly that is what they really should do.

2. They’d have it no other way.

3. They pay a lot of money for it.

4. They ignore people who say they shouldn’t do it.

5. They are proud of it after they do it!

6. They “love” their new look.

7. They’ve made a huge commitment to it.

8. There’s no turning back or changing their mind.

A bizarre example for sure, but that is very much the way it ought to be when starting up your own business.

Business Owners:
1. Believe really strongly that they are doing what they really should do. Believing in your product, service or idea is one of the main keys for success.
2. They would have it no other way. They really like being “the boss”.
3. They pay a lot of money for getting their business going. According to www.franchise.com the average fast food franchise in the USA costs $270,000. A Health/Fitness/Beauty place will average $ 91,240. A music theatre in Branson: about 25 million. In 1990 I started a little shopper paper with $400 cash and sold it 5 years later for $150,000.
4. They ignore people who say they shouldn’t do it. There are always people who’ll tell you something won’t work, or your making a big mistake. Half of the population in the USA, at the time, thought Lincoln was a madman for signing the emancipation proclamation to free the slaves.
5. They are proud of it after they do it! Business owners will often be as passionate about their new business as politicians trying to get you to vote for them!
6. They “love” their new look. Business owners build websites to show it off, put it on TV, in the papers and on Billboards. Also when the business owner builds new building they “love their new look” and want to show it off.
7. They’ve made a huge commitment to it. Many times people quit a 40-hour a week job and start a business and work 65-75 hours a week.
8. There’s no turning back or changing their mind. Once you have signed a huge loan at the bank there’s no turning back. You must make it work.

Remember.
· When called on to choose between opportunity and security, the vast majority won’t leave their comfort zone. They’ll choose security.

Wizard of Ads Partner Steve Clark emailed me about that post and said:

Most people work at jobs they don't like, to earn money to buy things they
don't need, to impress people they don't like.

Kind of crazy don't you think?

Thoreau said it best "most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to
their graves with their song still in them".

What a shame.

Steve Clark

The radical thinking that would make you an extremely successful business owner will get you in a lot of trouble as an employee. ( I know from painful experience) And the “play it safe” thinking, of a security driven employee, does not work well when your trying to decide to whether borrow $1,500,000 to build on additional space to your building.

And finally the “dictatorial” style of a business owner does NOT work very good at home where the family needs unconditional love …and the caring and unconditional love a home needs does not work well at the business. Sometimes you have to say, “your fired.”

Kim, my answer is this: if a person wanted own their own business as much as those people on TV wanted a sex change I am sure their business would do well and prosper and be amazingly successful.
Contact me with comments.

Have Fun, Make Money

Are you pursuing what you really want?

I'm doing personal research Googleizing the people who are having fun doing what they do for a living. My research shows they tend to make a lot more money than those who are not. Plus they are happy.

I get up each day with a list of “things to do” that I made the night before.
On that list are things that I love to do. Do you have a list like that?
A favorite quote of mine:
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both. James Michener

Even if you have a bad day you can still try to make it fun.

For example:

To my dismay, I discovered Saturday afternoon at my Country Music Theatre that I had a hot water tank leaking in the girl’s dressing room. About an inch of water was on the floor. We put an out of order sign on it. Thirty minutes before show time someone sat on a sink in the ladies restroom. The sink came down off the wall, and broke the water line and a stream of water about the size of a half dollar was shooting straight out about ten feet. I ran to get a ladder; I scrambled to the attic and shut off the water. We had about 400 customers in the building and only one potty that worked. (The one in my dressing room!) I came down and stared in disbelief at the mess. I said what any rational thinking person would say, “Oh sh--!” Fortunately… some guys that knew plumping 101 helped me out. They cut the pipe put a cap on it and about an hour we had the ladies room functioning again, minus one sink.
When I got on stage for the show I was exasperated! But I joked around and said, "If you ladies can hold it long enough; I gotta get in my dressing room and change clothes." The audience laughed.
After intermission on the second half of the show, I said, “Ya know, only in plumbing does a straight flush beat a full house.” Everybody roared.

As people were leaving that night many proclaimed what a great show it was. No one complained of the mess of water, bathrooms not working, and the wait that some ladies had.
Many laughed and remarked how funny it was. I remarked that it wasn’t very funny at the time. Everyone said I handled it well.

The point is: I love what I do. Whether advertising and marketing consulting work, SEO work, or my hobby of playing music with the Opry Performers and my three sons, or speaking. Whatever I do, I try to have fun. I’ve had plenty of difficult days, but over-all my main concern is that I’m doing everyday my own definition of success. And that is: The active pursuit of pre-planned, worthy ideals and goals I set for myself years ago. Are you pursuing what you really want?
The business owners and professionals I meet who are happiest and making the most money are always doing something they love to do.

Please contact me if you would like to share what you do for a living that you love to do.